Not Even Close

Oh my god this is awesome. Crazy, catchy instrumentals mixing prog and electronica and funny vocalizing. Big, big fun. Lots of wackiness on synths, masking some complex, Zappa-ish composing. Mandatory for fans of pop-synth sounds like Death By Chocolate or Thelonious Moog.

It's like a moving walkway with the speed set too high -- you don't lose your balance, but you often feel like you're almost there. Tracks like (8) leave you feeling bombarded -- just as you settle into one musical idea, it throws something else at you. (9) starts out loungy and nice but ends up more tense, with "bow-bo-bow" vocal chanting.

Vervloesem, from Belgium, was part of the crazed avant-rock/jazz/whatever group X-Legged Sally. It's all him here, with wife Michele Vervloesem adding some vocals.

1- Fast, breezy. The "yip yip yip yip... Voila!" part is just awesome.
2- A rare nearly-serious moment. Airy, w/pretty vocals (wordless). Slowish meandering, w/hints of modern classical. Overlapping vocals near the end are pretty damn cool.
3- Fast bing-bong beat. Pleasantly chiming at the end.
4- Nifty tiny swingy feel.
5- Fluty and quirky-classical. Gets into some stompy rock-out moments.
6- Chorus-like, more Bacharach than choir
7- Mellowish electronica melody, manic popping percussion.
8- Tense, bouncing, popping, playful.
9- Calm, even loungy. With some goofy vocal sounds later as it gets more tense.
10- Kind of a secret-agent march with synthy harpsichord sounds.
11- Fast faux-serious beat after a crazy synth solo.
12- Serpentine piano, fairly fast. Serious, then collapses into a funny synth-kazoo party.
13- Oh so Euro. Dry diffident beat, detatched French narration. 21st-century film noir.
14- Slowish, into warbly manipulated sound. Lots of Zappa-esque/classical turns. More noise-y than most.